Book Marketing for Nonfiction Authors Blog

LinkedIn Endorsements: How to Use Them and How to Turn Off Email Notifications

Recently LinkedIn introduced a new feature called Endorsements, where people in your network can acknowledge your skills, and you can return the favor. Endorsements appear at the bottom of your profile, alongside a list of your skills and expertise.

Essentially this feature allows others to easily validate your experience, based on keywords you’ve specified in the Skills and Expertise area of your LinkedIn profile, or they can suggest key terms that you haven’t yet defined.

IMPORTANT: Now would be a good time to go review the Skills and Expertise keywords you have on your profile and add any that may be missing. For example, if you’re a coach specializing in women’s issues, make sure that “Women’s Issues” is listed in your skill set. From LinkedIn, click on Profile, then Edit Profile. Scroll down to the Skills and Expertise area, then click Add a Skill.

Though this feature is still quite new, I consider it a sort of karma exchange. When you view a profile for one of your connections on LinkedIn, you can quickly click to endorse them for one or more skills. In return, they may also endorse you. LinkedIn also suggests people to endorse at the top of your profile when you login. Giving an endorsement is a quick and easy way to remind members of your network that you are paying attention, and they in turn can do the same for you.

Over time these endorsements will likely build on individual profiles, and will ultimately reflect your individual expertise in the various skills you have identified. LinkedIn hasn’t yet provided a way to request endorsements from your network (like can do with Recommendations), so for now the best way to get started is to contribute endorsements for others and hope they do the same for you.

By default, when you receive an endorsement LinkedIn sends you a notification message via email. This feature could quickly become annoying so here’s how to turn it off:

1. From your profile, click on your name in the upper right corner, then Settings.

2. Click on Email Preferences.

3. Click on Set the Frequency of Emails. Scroll down to locate Endorsements, choose No Email, then Save Changes.